Tomás de Torquemada

Tomás de Torquemada (14 October 1420 – 16 September 1498), anglicized as Thomas of Torquemada, was a Spanish Dominican friar and the first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. In that role, he led a group of ecclesiastical prelates created in 1478 to uphold Catholic religious orthodoxy within the newly formed union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon, presently known as the Kingdom of Spain.

In part because of persecution, Muslims and Jews in Castile and Aragon at that time found it socially, politically, and economically advantageous to convert to Catholicism (becoming what were known as conversos, moriscos, and marranos). The existence of superficial converts from Judaism was perceived by the Catholic Monarchs as a threat to the religious and social life in their realms. This led Torquemada to be one of the chief supporters of the Alhambra Decree, which expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492.

Owing to the Inquisition's use of torture to extract confessions and burning at the stake of those declared guilty, and to Torquemada's own approval, even advocacy, of these practices, his name has become synonymous with cruelty, religious intolerance, and fanaticism.